Refugees: Europe’s Dual Reality

Europe’s elite have failed and the Dublin Regulation, in all its bureaucratic absurdity, has become the very symbol of this failure. Fortunately, these developments have been accompanied by an uprising of volunteer helpers.

The moment
when the Dublin Regulation was shattered was a major moment for civil society
and for everyday Europeans. On Monday, when Hungarian security forces ceased
preventing refugees from entering Keleti Station in Budapest and instead
allowed them to board trains, hundreds of Vienna residents poured into the
city’s Westbahnhof train station. People quickly emptied products from the
shelves of the supermarket located in the underground level of the station. ÖBB,
Austria’s national railway, dispatched special trains to the border to pick up
passengers from overcrowded Hungarian trains. When the first trains arrived in
Vienna, teams of interpreters had formed, seemingly out of nowhere. Tasks were
assigned and everything went like clockwork. There were helpers on hand from
the Catholic charity Caritas, the national railway, volunteers, the Red Cross
-- and these groups have had the last word at the station ever since.

The
majority of those fleeing continued on to Munich, where similar scenes unfolded
-- ones of helpfulness and of open arms.

Europe, in
short, is showing its worst face and its best face at exactly the same time.

The worst
face is represented by Europe of the elite, with their impracticable,
exclusionary rules combined with their inability to govern humanely. With its
bureaucratic absurdity, the Dublin Regulation is the symbol of this failure. It
is difficult to know where to start in explaining everything that is wrong with
this repulsive regulation. Is it the provision stipulating that a person can
request asylum here in Germany, but that airlines are required to pick up all
the costs if they fly a person here who doesn’t meet the criteria for asylum
status? In practical terms, this means that no airline is willing to allow any
refugees on board -- people who could be paying €300 for a flight rather than
€10,000 to human trafficking gangs, only to be transported on deadly routes to
places where they have a legal right to apply for asylum. Or perhaps the absurd
policy that asylum proceedings in Europe’s borderless Schengen area must be
conducted in the country where the person seeking protection first touched EU
soil. Yet there is no mechanism for distributing the asylum seekers among all
EU member states, meaning the bloc’s periphery states must bear the lion’s share
of the burden. It’s a policy that, in practice, creates a perverse
inter-European competition to see which country can do the best job of keeping
refugees out.

And even
those countries that are taking in large numbers of refugees, such as Germany
and Austria, are marked by the discourse of isolation being pursued by their
political elites. Germany, for example, pressured the Italians to put a stop to
its "Mare Nostrum" program, which sought to help refugee boats in
distress. Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said at the time that the
program was tantamount to "the abetment of human trafficking."
According to his fuzzy logic, if refugees knew they would be rescued, it would
increase their willingness to board a ship. The flip-side of this argument is that
if many drown, then others would be less willing to try. Of course, were you to
ask Thomas de Maizière today, he would say he didn't mean it like that.

And yes,
the British and Polish governments are behaving even more shamefully. The
latter would presumably even feel overburdened if they were asked to take in
just four or five people seeking shelter.

Keleti
Station in Budapest on Wednesday night. The station’s underground level is
packed with thousands of refugees, along with their tents, sleeping bags,
suitcases and backpacks. It is a gigantic refugee camp with an estimated 3,000
people. The handful of helpers in the Migration Aid Center -- who collect and
distribute donations and aid supplies -- are hopelessly overextended. The
health and hygiene conditions are catastrophic. Small children and even babies
sleep on the floor. This Hungary is supposed to be responsible for the refugees
according to the Dublin Regulation? We in Europe talk about safe countries of
origin outside the EU? You only have to spend a couple hours in this train
station to know that not even EU-member Hungary is a safe country for those
seeking help. People from Vienna, located just a two-and-a-half hour drive from
here, keep showing up. And each of them has a family with children in their
backseat when they return to Austria. It’s not legal. But what does that
matter? On Sunday, an entire convoy of cars is set to head from Vienna to
Budapest. It’s clever motto: "Rail Replacement Service."

It’s as
though there were two realities: On the one hand is scandalous misery and the
governments, with their dysfunctional asylum policies and attempts to seal
their countries off. On the other is the wave of helpfulness, the uprising of
volunteer helpers. The reports and images of people who are doing all they can.
Racist agitators and "asylum critics" have been almost completely drowned out.
Even completely normal people -- not just those often referred to as
"do-gooders" -- are suddenly proud of the fact that their society is presenting
itself in the best possible light. Suddenly, it is no longer the good ones who
are disheartened and despondent -- for they are giving each other courage in
these difficult days. Rather, it is the mean-spirited who have suddenly become
quiet. Agitating and standing by as others drown suddenly isn't cool anymore.

The one
Europe is failing. And the other is putting its best foot forward.

Schlagwörter

Kommentare

You should know that this article isn´t an neutral descripition but a biased report and based on a personal preconceived opinion and experiences. It´s mandatory to read other newspapers and online information.

This article is a good example for German media reporting at the moment regarding the topic refugees. A lot of personal feelings, well-intentioned propostions mixed with the personal opinion to tell the truth. This has nothing to do with serious journalism, based on facts and investigation.

Unfortunately, some things will never change. There are still too many Germans who really believe that "the German spirit shall heal the world". Pointing on other countries believing that Germany is superior.

In reality, it's a country which didn't hasn't been helping others for years insisting on the Dublin regulations, which boasts its refugee numbers higher than they actually are yet lowering the one of other countries. It's nothing but hypocrisy.

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